Alexandria

Alexandria is the second capital of Egypt and was its capital in the past. It is the capital of Alexandria Governorate and its largest city. It is located on the Mediterranean coast with a length of about 55 km northwest of the Nile Delta, on an area of 2523 km². It is bordered to the north by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the south by Beheira Governorate. And Lake Mariout up to Kilometer 71 on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, and it is bordered to the east by Beheira Governorate and Abu Qir Bay, and to the west to Kilometer 36.30 on the International Coastal Road, and the Burj Al Arab Center.
The city of Alexandria includes many distinctive landmarks, as it is home to the largest sea port in Egypt, which is the Port of Alexandria, through which about 60% of the total Egyptian imports and exports pass. It also includes the New Library of Alexandria, which contains more than eight million books, and receives about 1.5 million books. million visitors annually, It also includes many museums such as the Alexandria National Museum and the Greco-Roman Museum, and archaeological sites such as Qaitbay Citadel and the Pillar Column. The population of the city of Alexandria on July 1, 2017 was about people, working in various Economic activities: Alexandria is divided into nine administrative districts: First Montazah District, Second Montazah District, East District, Central District, West District, Al-Gomrok District, Al-Ajami District, First Al-Amriya District, and Second Al-Amriya District.
Work on establishing Alexandria began at the hands of Alexander the Great in the year 332 BC, by filling in a portion of the water separating an island extending in front of the main coast called “Pharos,” which has an ancient port, and a small village called “Raktos” or “Raqouda,” surrounding It has other small villages spread between the sea and Lake Mariout, and Alexander the Great and his successors made it the capital of Egypt for nearly a thousand years, until the Islamic conquest of Egypt at the hands of Amr ibn al-Aas in the year 641. Alexandria was famous throughout history through many Landmarks such as the ancient Library of Alexandria, which contained more than 700,000 volumes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, due to its enormous height, which reached about 120 meters. This lighthouse remained standing until it was destroyed by a strong earthquake in the year 1307.
Some historians believe that Alexander the Great’s choice of the city of Alexandria to be the capital of his state was guided by the guidance of his spiritual teacher Homer in the epic of the Odyssey, where Telemachus, son of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, went to Menelaus, King of Sparta, asking him if he knew anything about the fate of his disappeared father. Menelaus told about The horrors of war and the courage of the King of Ithaca and his lost army, and after their armies were exhausted by fatigue, they reached the shores of Egypt, on the island of Pharos, and there, as the King of Sparta says: “We were able to water the waters of this country under which rivers flow.”
History
Antiquity
At the beginning of the fourth century BC, Alexandria was nothing but a small village called “Raktos” or “Raqouda” surrounded by small villages. Archaeologists say that it may have been a strategic location to expel the peoples that might attack from time to time from the western side of the Nile Valley. ,Or perhaps “Raktos” was just a small village that depended on fishing only, and along the main coast of the village there is an island called “Pharos Island” in which there is a port that serves the island and the coastal villages together. At that time, Egypt was under Persian occupation since the fall of The rule of the Pharaohs and the Thirty Dynasty in the year 343 BC, and Egypt was not the only one under the occupation of the Persians. The Levant and Iraq were under this occupation, and in contrast to the power of the Persians, the power of the Greeks was rapidly increasing, and the confrontation between them began in the spring of the year 334 BC. The battles between them continued until Alexander the Great entered the city of Tire and then to Gaza until he completed his entry into Egypt in the year 333 BC.
After Alexander the Great entered Egypt and expelled the Persians from it, the Egyptians welcomed him due to the cruelty with which they were treated under the Persian occupation. In order for Alexander the Great to confirm that he had come to Egypt as a friend and ally and not an invader and colonizer, he went to visit the temple of the god Amun, the greatest god of Egypt at that time. So he went to the temple in the Siwa Oasis, and the priests performed adoption rituals for him so that Alexander the Great became the son of the god Amun, and he was later named the son of Amun. On his way to the temple, he passed through a village for fishermen that was called “Raqouda.” He admired the place and decided to build a city bearing his name. To be a connecting point between Egypt and Greece, which is the city of Alexandria (in ancient Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια ἡ κατ’ Αἴγυπτον; in modern Greek: Αλεξάνδρεια), its construction was entrusted to the engineer Dinocrates, who built it according to the model Greek cities, and their layout so that the horizontal streets are perpendicular to the vertical streets,  And also the construction of a bridge connecting the island and the village, which was called the “Heptastadion.” After several months, Alexander left Egypt and headed towards the east to complete the rest of his conquests. He conquered Persia, but his ambitions did not stop there. Rather, he marched with his army until he reached India and Central Asia. While Alexander was there, he was struck by an illness that did not last long, as death came upon him ten days later, when he was only thirty-two years old.
In its early days, Alexandria was characterized by a military character as a city for Greek soldiers. Then, during the days of the Greek Ptolemies, it turned into a royal city with its gardens, white marble columns, and wide streets. It was transformed at that time into the capital of Egypt, and it became one of the cities of science and arts after the Ptolemies built a number of major monuments there. Such as the Library of Alexandria, which is considered the first real research institute in history, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and overlooked the sea and the southeast of the eastern port, which was called the Great Port. If we compare it with the port of Heraklion at Abu Qir, at the mouth of one of the ancient tributaries of the Nile that has disappeared, and currently the mouth of the Nile has receded to become 20 kilometers away from Abu Qir at Rosetta.
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